The Story: Mike is a young cop, spending his downtime with his girlfriend, eating out cheap, and playing soccer video games. But, there is a darkness within Mike, which comes out when he and his partner are in a diner shoot-out between warring pimps and crooks. Mike's brutal actions lead him to believe he may be suspended, but instead he is put on undercover duty and sent to infiltrate the Triads and hopefully break up the Four Kings, a group of Triad bosses. After Mike saves Boss Tim's wife, Pauline, Mike slowly beings to win favor with the jovial but deadly mob boss. Soon, Mike abandons his previous life and easily settles in to the mob world- performing hits, rescuing and having an affair with the bosses wife, and quickly becoming Boss Tim's right hand man... But, Mike is not free and clean, Boss Tim and Pauline are still very much in love, their relationship complicated by Boss Tim's impotence due to an injury. And, Mike's new seedy lifestyle doesn't go unnoticed by his superiors and his fellow undercover cops. In the end, Mike may pay the ultimate price for his vices.

The Film: Arguably, since A Better Tomorrow hit the screens in 1986 and became a sensation, Hong Kong audiences have consistently flocked to the Triad film and embraced (and often romanticized) the world of the Chinese gangsters, much in the same way American audiences did in the 40's with our own gangster films. It is the Chinese equivalent to Donnie Brasco, White Heat, and Goodfellas.

Cop On A Mission is another entry into a well paved genre. It begins, with its lead character, Mike, bound and gagged, lying in an open grave, seemingly at his end, reflecting on the mess that got him there. So, like the classic Sunset Boulevard, we begin knowing poor Mike's fate... Cop On A Mission is unlike many gangster films, not only in that opening, but in how it perpetuates some of the standard conventions yet betrays them at the same time. Yes, its your usual undercover cop who begins to enjoy the gangster life, rises to prominence as a gangster, goes bad, has an affair with the leaders wife, but it also defies the clichés by having a pretty sympathetic mob boss, who isn't out to destroy the man having an affair with his wife, and by having a lead character that is almost completely unsympathetic. And, that is ultimately its main failing point.

While I love gray, unsympathetic lead characters, in this film it just doesn't work. We are given glimpses into Mike's personality- his dad was a cop, his parents were both killed early in his life, he hates being poor, but pretty much he is shown as being instantly corruptible. There is no struggle with right and wrong. He is, sort of, just a bad guy who hasn't had a chance to be bad. So, the film utterly lacks tension. Just like all the other gangster/undercover cop movies, we know he will usurp the boss's right hand man and become the bosses favorite pupil. We know when he sees Pauline he will have an affair with her. We know there will be moments when Mike will be questioned about being the guy having an affair or the guy who is actually a cop. But, since Mike is such a dislikable, crooked man, do we care if he gets caught one way of the other?- Not really. So, while it is a good triad film in both recycling but twisting gangster film clichés, and is a neat entry into the genre, its just not an ultimately involving or exciting one because its hard to care for its protagonist.

Director Marco Mak is a well known, top editor in Hong Kong, working on such films as Swordsman, Chinese Ghost Story 2, Conman, Full Alert and Time and Tide. This is his second film as director, and while he shows a pretty competent hand, its a little early to say if he will be the next big thing, a new Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam, or Johnny To. The production and look of the film is very good, while some of the techniques (switching to black and white, general loopy camera moves) were for my taste uneven, I will give him credit for putting in two blatant references borrowed from DePalma's Untouchables (which I wont spoil). The cast is quite solid, and they do well with the material provided. Up and comer Daniel Wu plays Mike; HK fans will know him form Gen X Cops, Purple Storm and 2000 A.D. Suki Kwan from High Risk, True Mob Story, Love At First Sight, and Century of the Dragon plays Pauline. Veteran character actor Eric Tsang as Brother Tim is the most impressive, but HK fans expect that from him, he's a classic HK film star and listing his resume would take forever, suffice to say if you know HK film, you know Eric Tsang. .... Interestingly, the film's writer is credited as being "Not A Woman" which one assumes is a comical pseudonym for a large group of writers (probably all male) from the studio.

The DVD: Tai Seng Video Picture- Letterboxed. Over all, for a print of an HK film it is very good. It shows good sharpness and great color, which is a real plus because the films cinematography is full of very rich, well balanced hues, bold blues and reds. There is some spottiness, slight wear, and occasional low contrast scenes, but the world of HK film transfers is an imperfect one, and fans will no doubt find the transfer more than adequate. Sound-Catonese Dolby Digital 5.1, and 2.0 Mandarin and Vietnamese. Optional bold, yellow English Subs. Unlike the traditional dubbing most Chinese films did in the past, much of Cop on a Missions dialogue was recorded on set. Unfortunately, there are times when the scenes are not miked well. It is all perfectly audible, but a little reverby. It is especially noticeable when it switches from Mike's heavy voice over to the actual scene dialogue. But, Tai Seng does its best with what was provided, and presents three distinct audio tracks, the 5.1 original Cantonese being the preferred track. Extras- 18 Chapters--- Art Gallery, stills from the film clocking in a 1 ½ mins.---Filmographies for Daniel Wu, Eric Tsang, Suki Kwan , And Marco Mak.--- Trailers, both a US and HK trailer for Cop On A Mission Plus trailers for The Assassin, Deadful Melody, The Duel, Dragon Inn, Running Out of Time, Armageddon, Body Weapon, and Fist Power--- Commentary by Frank Djeng, Tai Seng's product marketing manager. This was a puzzler, since the DVD, the packaging, and press material didnt state who did the commentary, and to my surprise, neither did the commentator, himself. Luckily, when I asked Tai Seng, they were kind enough to respond and inform me it was Mr Djeng. As with most third person commentaries, it does suffer from having someone who cant tell you much about the actual behind the scenes production. But, he does give good bios on the films principle stars and Chinese culture- like pointing out that the neon signs on the street are for sex shops, massage parlors and the like, explains how when a cop draws his gun in HK an alarm goes off at headquarters, and how Chinese gangs still use blunt or sharp weapons instead of guns because its considered bad form to kill rivals and guns are still hard to obtain. But, since we have a commentator not in the inner circle of the films production we end up getting say, lots of comments about the direction ("I love this shot") and so forth. So, it is a fair commentary worth a listen, giving some good info on the stars, triad/gangster films, but it has the obvious flaws of a solo commentary track by an outsider to the actual film.